10/7 So happy

Hear that purring sound? It's me. I'm so happy my family is here. Physical health has been really rough lately, but who cares...I'm in Grandma and Mommy heaven. No time to post anything original, so will copy what I wrote to my writer friends.

"Kids arrived Saturday. Am in nirvana.

Too much to write about, but some up and down news from the pain doctor.

Met with him late last week and was scheduled for another procedure today. My kids went with me. I got to watch it on the xray. Before he began the doc said, "I'm changing my mind. We can't do the blah blah blah. Your arthritis is so severe I can't get in between the bones." Imagine how sad I was to hear that.

Then he said, "So we'll move on to the next procedure." He did a test today to see if I would response to a radio wave procedure on a filament, like a nerve, next to my spinal cord. I had to wait about a half hour and he said if the pain was at least 50% better, then we could schedule the full procedure. Imagine my sadness when the pain in my buttocks was still horrible. Then he remembered that I had had lots of pain in my sacroiliac, and he hadn't done the test there. Turned out the place he'd done the test was totally pain free.

So Wednesday Rob and Jill will accompany me for the full procedure, which should help significantly with the pain.

I'm full of hope.

By the way, doctor's first name is Omid, which is Persian for hope.

More on family later."

Then today I wrote:

"We have tons of pictures and will post them soon. Right now I'm struggling a bit with my back.

Everyone arrived around 5:15 PM on Saturday. I had most of the relatives at my home already, so it was a noisy, wonderful welcome. Saturday was such fun.

Sunday we had our photos taken about an hour away in Missouri. They didn't turn out as well as hoped because the overcast day turned into bright sunlight, but it was the only time we could schedule. Those are the ones I will post in a little while.

Sunday night we had a wiener roast at my brother's cabin--an hour in the other direction. The kids drove kid-sized tractors and had a ball. The food was excellent, as well as the company.

Yesterday we went shopping for a 22 inch monitor for my laptop and some other office items, for the work I'll be doing for Rob and Beata's company. Before that we went to the clinic for the procedure that I already wrote about.

Last night Rob met up with his best friend and they sat and talked until midnight. The rest of us just relaxed and enjoyed the kids.

Today we are running errands, getting a few more things for my home office--a printer, fax, and copier combo and Office '07. Yay, fun stuff. And tonight we're going to my sister Jan's for dinner, so this will be another good day.

Tomorrow is another procedure followed by rest and teaching at the university.

Thursday we're going to Nauvoo, IL--historic in the Mormon faith. They've reconstructed a village from that time and it's such fun. The kids will love it.

More later. Love to all."

I promise pictures very soon.